I Object

03.14.12

Goldman Exec Quits in NYT Op-Ed

Brendan McDermid, Reuters / Landov

Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith knows how to go out with a bang. “Today is my last day at Goldman Sachs,” he writes in a New York Times op-ed. He’s been at Goldman for 12 years, and says, “The environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.” Smith says the investment bank has lost its way. It used to want to help clients; now people call them “muppets” and “callously” talk about ripping them off. The firm changed the way it thought about leadership, he says. “Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted into a position of influence.”